How to be an organised student

There are so many documents, letters, and notes to keep organised just in our daily life. Throw work and study in the mix and now there’s plenty of projects and deadlines to constantly manage! The question becomes how can you stay on top of all these tasks, even with different timelines and deadlines?

Whether you prefer to manage your life digitally or physically, we’ll break down our favourite productivity systems. We’ll also explore ways to incorporate them into your study to help optimise your organisation and improve your planning skills. 

How can organisation tools benefit me?

Organisational systems and planning tools can be valuable in your day-to-day life and can assist you with work and study organisation. By integrating systems and techniques into your study and workflow that enhance your organisation, you can improve your productivity and time management. Leveraging tools that make managing life a breeze will also help to reduce the stress of remembering everything and hoping nothing slips through the cracks. 

Trying out these tools for different projects is a great way to get familiar with the most popular project management tools used by businesses. Giving yourself a basic understanding of these systems before entering a new job can help with the transition into a new role. Removing the stress of learning another new system as you progress in your career can make any change less painful. This will also allow you to focus on the work at hand. 

So, let’s explore the tools that can help you succeed!

Kanban boards 

In a Kanban board, work is displayed all in one place. This allows work to be visible on a project board, split into columns, and makes it easy to view the progress of a project at a glance. Each column represents a stage of work and can be customised by project or planning style. 

How do I use a Kanban board?

Kanban boards are very versatile and can be used for simple day-to-day task tracking or be more detailed to track an assessment or larger project. A basic Kanban board might have these three columns to split the work: 

• To-do.
• In progress.
• Completed.

Each column is filled with visual cards that represent individual tasks. These can be colour coded based on importance, project, or urgency. There are so many customisable options to this model that can allow you to tailor a board to fit your needs.

Incorporating it into your study set-up

Digital

Many online project management programs have a base template using the kanban board, but our favourite is Trello. 

Trello is a web-based planning tool that has the Kanban board at the heart of its design. You can freely move tasks between sections. The system has many integrations that even allow you to add emails and Slack messages as tasks on your board with ease. These templates can be great for keeping track of day-to-day tasks at work as they appear. Or, you can create a new board and customise it to track the progress of an assessment task. 

Tip: Pin the tab to your browser so it’s always there, but not in the way. Use the app to send reminders for tasks directly to your phone when you need them most.

Physical

Sticky notes are a great tool to make this system come to life outside the digital space. Set aside some wall space or get a large cork board and split it into the three sections. Then, write each task or project on its own sticky note (you can even colour code tasks to align with bigger projects!). Now all the set-up is done, simply move the sticky notes along each stage as you work through them.

Gantt charts

Gantt charts are flexible planning systems that enable you to manage, track and view all tasks regardless of their own individual timeline all in one place. They visually represent the lifecycle of a project overtime, including deadlines, status updates, and resource assignment. You can also assign individual responsibility for each task if there are multiple contributors. Gantt charts are typically in a calendar view and shows projects as a horizontal bar chart within the graph, giving you an overview of the tasks at hand. 

How do I use Gantt charts?

Gantt charts are fantastic for managing any project, big or small. They’re particularly useful in organising complex projects with interdependencies and subtasks that a Kanban board or simple to-do list can’t accommodate. If you’re unsure where to start, here are some things to consider:

• Determine the project’s scope: Clearly outline the project and it’s goals, including any key contributors, checkpoints, and limitations. 
• List out all tasks: Break down the project into more manageable tasks that can easily be sorted and distributed.
• Decide on task deadlines: Estimate how long each task will take.
• Note any dependencies: These are any tasks that rely on the completion of others. Ensure you know what they are and where they sit in the project timeline.
• Pick your tool: Whether it’s a versatile online tool or handwriting a chart, choose your tool and input your data. 

Incorporating it into your study set-up

Digital

Microsoft Excel is often the favourite tool for creating online Gantt charts. If the project has multiple contributors, it’s best to use digital tools so you can easily share the plan and track updates in real time.

Physical

Although this system generally works best digitally, where it’s easy to update and change deadlines if required, it is possible to translate this to a physical system. The best way is to get creative with a whiteboard or a grid lined notebook and sketch your own Gantt chart. Organise it to fit your tasks by giving it a weekly or monthly spread.

Tip: Even if you prefer drafting your notes digitally, you can create a calendar or plan on your computer and print it out! Highlight any deadlines and due dates, then pin it to your wall in your study space so you can always see it as you work.

The best apps to help you study smarter

Priority to-do lists

To-do lists are great for keeping track of your tasks, and ticking off a task once complete is always a motivation booster. But sometimes a simple to-do list won’t cut it. This is where you can utilise a priority to-do, one step ahead of a basic checklist. Using a prioritisation method to enhance your to-do list can help you focus on the important tasks first and filter out any unnecessary tasks. 

How do I use a priority to-do list?

Start by writing all your tasks like a regular to-do list, no matter how big or small. Think of this as a catch-all for all tasks. Then you assign a ranking to each task. You can do this using any prioritisation technique you like, for example, the simple ABCDE Method. This is when you assign a priority level ‘A’ through ‘E’, with ‘A’ representing high priority and ‘E’ representing low priority. 

There are plenty of other techniques you can use to determine priority, but here’s of one of our favourites, the Eisenhower matrix. 

Eisenhower matrix

• Once you have your list of tasks, categorise them into four quadrants. These are based on urgency (how soon it needs to be completed) and importance (the impact of its completion on your project or other tasks). The four quadrants: 
  • Urgent and important (do).
  • Important but not urgent (schedule).
  • Urgent but not important (delegate).
  • Not urgent and not important (eliminate). 
• Try to eliminate all unnecessary tasks first, that way you have more energy to focus on the most critical items.
• Then you can work your way through each remaining task easily, emphasizing urgency and importance at a glance. 

Incorporating it into your study set-up

This method is one of the easiest to incorporate into your study set up, as you likely already use some version of it already. Nevertheless, here are some great tools you can use to increase your productivity.

Digital

One of our favourite tools for managing projects and tasks is Monday.com , where you can create an intuitive to-do list with due dates while also assigning each one a priority level. Monday is a much more powerful tool for organisation and automation, but using the to-do list feature is a great start to get familiar with the platform.

Physical

If you still prefer paper based to-do lists, you can always step up your regular lists by highlighting tasks and colour coordinating them based on importance and urgency. 

The bullet journal method

Bullet journalling is a fantastic method of tracking everything, from personal appointments and assessment tasks, to daily to-do lists and reflection. They’re a great catch-all and convenient to have on hand as a reference when planning your life. This method helps you slow down, disconnect from technology, centre yourself, and clear your mind from the mental clutter. It allows you to tackle your days with more clarity and focus in a way that works for you. 

How do I use a bullet journal?

It starts with a simple notebook and a pen. Bullet journals are helpful for showing you a bigger view of your goals and how they fit into the year before they are broken down into more refined timeframes.

The great thing about an empty notebook is you can customise it to work for you. Here’s a quick guide on how you can structure your bullet journal.

• Intention: Start with your intention and use the first page to write down your big goals. It can be a real motivator to check in on your goals every time you open your notebook. 
• Index and key: Next, set aside some pages for an index so you can easily reference the content in your journal. The journal you use should ideally have page numbers, but you can always add them in as you go. The key will show at a glance what symbols you use to label each item. For example, use a dot point (.) for tasks, a circle (o) for events and a dash (-) for notes.
• Future log: The next page is for the future log, great for long-term planning and giving you an overview of important dates, events, and deadlines at a glance. You can split each page into three horizontal sections, leaving each section for one month. That means you should see 6 months, in one view. This should give you enough room to track important dates and leave additional space to add more as needed. Remember to add these pages to your index and you’re good to go!
• Monthly log: Your monthly log starts with the month you’re currently in. This can be a two-page view. If you want to keep it simple, start with a list of dates and corresponding days on the left page, and a summary of monthly tasks on the right. 
• Daily log: Finally, break down your planning by each day. This can be as simple as adding the date and day at the top of the page and listing all tasks, appointments, events, and any notes for that day. This should be short and to the point to help you stay focused.  
• Reflect: At the end of each moth, reflect on your system and tweak it to suit your needs. If anything isn’t completed that month, make a note and add it to the following month.

Remember, you can be as creative or as streamlined when creating each log and page in your book. Anywhere from a detailed and measured calendar page to a simple bullet point list of dates, use whichever technique fits best with your routine. Maybe you want to add gratitude notes at the end of each day, or incorporate a habit tracker to help build healthy habits. The customisation options are endless!  

Incorporating it into your study set-up

Digital

Using a bullet journal should help you step away from technology and take time to write down your tasks. But if you’re set on a digital solution, you can use any online writing tools and free note-taking software like:

• Google Docs.
• Microsoft Word.
• Goodnotes.

Physical

Physically writing down things is a great way to help your mind retain information. Take a moment away from any digital distractions and write down your tasks. You don’t need a fancy, expensive notebook to get started. A piece of paper and a pen is a great start. 

Giving yourself time to separate your tasks and write them by hand can help you plan and prioritise which activities you should work on first, while also helping you remember them better.